The Rubber Sword
by Kimonoke
Summary: When Shanks invaded Zoro's house with a Straw Hat wearing boy, he would never have thought that the said boy would one day become his best friend. Centering around Luffy and Zoro's years of friendship and their families. No pairings.
1. Swords and Bruises

**Here I am with my first fanfiction ever. Now I have to tell, that english is not my native language, so please, don't be rough on me if you see any misspelling. Well, just to clear things, Zoro's 9 in this chapter. I don't think I have anything else to say for now, so I just hope you'll enjoy the chapter :)**

**I don't own One Piece**

**Chapter 1: Swords and Bruises**

Zoro sighed. Between Perona's whining about literally nothing and Mihawk's absence at home, the most annoying part was that he had to stay home, because it was raining outside. It was always like that. Their old man had to leave when there was nothing else interesting to do. He looked longingly at his swords and wished that there was something that he could do with them, but Perona was making sure that he wouldn't be able to just because of the injury he got yesterday when Mihawk still wasn't home and she was worried that something would happen to him while she was the only one at home and thus was responsible for him and his actions. She was worried over nothing. Like he would get hurt again. Damn her and her powers. She used them everytime, he tried to get to his swords. Just because she ate Devil Fruit, she got so bossy, it annoyed him everytime she opened her mouth.

He stood up and prepared himself to go to the training room. If he couldn't train with his swords, then at least he would lift some weights. It's not like she could stop him from doing it.

"… but he still wouldn't shut up…" Good, she was still talking to herself, maybe she wouldn't even notice that he left the room. "Oi, where are you going? I wasn't finished talking!"

There was his luck again.

"More like blabbering. I wasn't even listening to a single thing you were saying! I'm going to train." Zoro announced.

"Idiot! Don't! If something happens to you again, you know who's dad going to blame!"

"Would you stop it!? If you won't let me use my swords, then at least let me train by myself. There's nothing to do here anyway and everything's better than listening to your annoying monologue!"

"You're trying to say I'm annoying?! There was nothing annoying in my little speech." Yeah, there's Perona and her little speeches about possibly everything that's irrelevant in a human's life. "Are you hurt in the head? The only one' who's annoying is you, you little…"

"I'm not trying to say you're annoying" Zoro interrupted her. "I'm saying that you already are."

"Why, you little…" Perona clenched her teeth. "You think that I don't have better things to do than to watch out for you, so you wouldn't do anything stupid?"

"If you don't want to stay with me, then let me take my swords and you won't have to see me for the rest of the day!" Zoro exclaimed.

"And don't act like you're all grown up, it pisses me off." He added.

"Well, I'm older than you, which means you have to listen to me!"

"By two years and that's not a rule!" Zoro screamed exasperated. "Just let me train and I'll leave you alone."

"You idiot, that's exactly what you can't do. If you do I'll get in trouble!"

"Why do you have to be so…!"

"What is going on here?" said a new voice.

They were so busy fighting, they haven't noticed that someone entered their home. Mihawk looked sternly at his children, waiting for an explanation.

Perona sighed.

"Daddy, he's your son, you can talk some sense to him."

Perona walked away from her brother and sat comfortably on the couch watching the conversation that was about to occur.

Mihawk looked expectantly at the green haired boy.

"She's not letting me train" he said accusingly. "And she took my swords."

The tall man raided an eyebrow and directed his eyes on Perona.

"And why is that?"

"Because she's…" Zoro started, but got interrupted by the girl.

"He got hurt when he was training yesterday, so obviously I had to take away his swords" Perona explained.

"She used her powers on me!" Zoro screamed.

"Only because you would…!"

"How bad is your injury?" Mihawk didn't particularly want to listen to his children fighting when there was more important matter to discuss.

"It's not even worth…"

"He nearly dislocated his shoulder." Perona said and Zoro wished that his look would make her disappear from the living room. "There were so much noise even by your standards of training that I had to check if he was alive."

"I didn't dislocate… She's exaggerating. It's hardly even a bruise." Zoro was still looking accusingly towards Perona.

"Let me see" Mihawk bent down to his level and Zoro tried to get away from his grasp, but his efforts were to no avail. The elder man rolled up the sleeve of green haired boy to reveal a really big and bad looking bruise. Zoro looked away from his father.

"You didn't take care of it?" Mihawk's question was directed at Perona.

"Well, obviously, I would have, but he said that he would take care of it himself" Perona said visibly upset at her brother for lying to her.

"Well, you can do something about it now." Mihawk said with a tired voice.

"And what about…" Zoro started, his father still holding his good arm.

"And you can forget about training for the next week" Mihawk said sternly, his yellow eyes staring right at his son. "I'll train with you again after that time, but if I'll see you anywhere near any sword or the training room, you can forget about the training for the next month."

"You have got to be kiddin…"

"And that's a final" Mihawk interrupted Zoro before he could say anything else. "Now, Perona, go with Zoro and do something with that bruise."

Perona stood up with Kumashi in her hand and took Zoro by the other hand, which he shook off. Yellow eyed man could sweat that he heard him murmur "Old geezer" as they left the room.

Mihawk sighed. He waited all weekend to see his children after these hard few days, but even they couldn't let him rest. Of course Shanks's unannounced visit ten minutes later didn't help him either.


	2. Meat and Sake

**Here I am with the second chapter! It's almost three times as long as the last one. I hope you'll enjoy it :D**

**I really wanted to thank Neko11 for being my first and only reviewer. Your words really encouraged me :) And don't worry, I'm not planning on abandoning this story, I have others in plans and I don't want to start any new ones before I finish this :) And now, without any further ado, here's the new chapter.**

**Chapter 2: Meat and Sake**

"Hawky! How nice to finally see you! How long has it been?"

Of course it had to be Shanks of all people. When he wanted to rest it always had to be Shanks.

"Apparently not long enough" Mihawk answered. "I really enjoyed the time when you were not invading my house"

His anwer was fallowed by red-haired man's whine.

"Come on, at least this time I knocked."

Shanks passed Mihawk gracefully and directed himself to the living room. Mihawk sighed, closed the door and followed Shanks. Yeah, that was his rest.

"And that was my mistake. Next time I'll use the oppurtunity and leave the door closed."

"Don't be so grumpy." Shanks said. "Better tell me where you keep the booze. You hid it again." Of course he couldn't sit in one place, he had to rummage through all the drawers until he found what he was looking for.

Mihawk settled himself on the closest chair and felt the growing headache that was undeniably going to be unbearable if this man wouldn't leave his house within ten minutes. "The last thing I need is you drinking in my house."

"Finally. You know, you have to try harder hiding it." Shanks stood up from the floor when he found the bottle which was located on the lowest shelf. "When a man with only one hand can find it so easilly..."

"I hope that you didn't come here just to drink and complain" He wasn't stupid to believe that Shanks came here the moment he got back from his work just to fool around, but he had to start the subject personally if he wanted to get rid of him quickly.

Shanks just opened the bottle and didn't bother to pour the liquor to the glass and just drank straight from it. "As always straight to the point, my friend. But I must say I feel really offended. Somehow I detect that you really don't want me to be here." Mihawk tsked at that. "Dahahaha! Don't worry, I'm not planning on staying too long, tough it really makes me sad." Even when Shanks said it he didn't sound sad at all.

"So? Why are you here?"

"I need information" the tone in Shanks's voice suddenly became serious. "Every information you can get about revolutionaries from the Government. Especially about the leader."

Mihawk frowned in surprise. What was he getting himself into again?

"Surely you can get this kind of information yourself" Mihawk again pondered about what Shanks said. "You don't think that their leader is going to threaten you in any way? You're smart enough to know that they wouldn't want any problems with you or your people. Then what is it?"

"It's not the information about them or their boss that I want to get" Shanks pointed out happy that his friend was asking the good questions. "But it's the information that the Government has or will have about them. I'm not concerned about revolutionaries threatening me, but the threat that the Government is to them."

Something about this whole thing didn't sound right. Shanks normally wasn't interested in this kind of stuff.

"You don't want to join forces with them, do you?"

Shanks tried to hide his amused grin. "You know me better than that, Hawky. You know that I despise the Government, but I have no interest in taking actions against them." Shanks thought for a second about what he just said. "Well, any more extreme actions, that is, dahahahaha!"

"Something still doesn't suit here. Why do you suddenly want to prevent World Government from taking actions against revolutionaries? You should know that at this point it's practically impossible."

"My dear friend, I don't want to stop the war that is about to come between those two organizations. I only want to prevent the Government from taking certain actions that can affect their leader. And I'm not saying it out of concern for him. Just inform me when you hear that they found something about him or his background."

"Then why do you..." even Mihawk could be sometimes surprised and it was one of those moments. When Shanks made no sense at all, everybody could be at loss, but this case was too huge to be one of Shanks's whims. It had to have something to do with one of the recent things that Shanks had to deal with. There weren't much, so it should be easy to deduce.

"I always knew you knew me well, my friend and..."

"It has something to do with those three kids you took in."

Shanks didn't smirk, but he didn't look surprised at all too.

"Of course, you're not disappointing me. As you can see this case is urgent for me and I can't ask anybody else to do it. Nobody could do it better than you, anyway, so even if I knew someone else, I wouldn't get through all this trouble to get them to do it."

Mihawk rolled his eyes in annoyance. Something that wasn't new to him in Shanks's presence.

"As always blunt as usual. You're not really encouraging me to do this job for you."

Shanks just ignored him and took another sip of sake.

"And you have to remember that every information is important, but focus mostly on Dragon. Any information you get, you tell it directly to me. Try to avoid den den mushi when talking about it, unless the case is urgent. And while you're at it, when they start digging information about Roger, you tell me about it too. They shouldn't find much, twelve years after his death, but if they do, remember it's just as urgent as the first case."

Mihawk furrowed his brows. "You know, I'm not obliged to help you in any way." Mihawk said, but Shanks gave no answer and the yellow-eyed man watched as the other one emptied the bottle.

"I should give you more details, but you probably figured it all out." Shanks finally answered.

"I think I can say that." Mihawk admitted. "Just why exactly did you take those kids in?"

Shanks gave the biggest smile since he got here. "Let's just say they're worth the trouble."

Mihawk only looked at him and said nothing more in the matter.

"I still haven't agreed to your deal. And you didn't seem to notice that it's one-sided."

"But I know you'll do it, because you're my friend." Shanks said amused, knowing that he was right. "Besides..." Mihawk frowned waiting at what else Shanks had to say "You'll soon find your own interest in that matter."

* * *

><p>It really wasn't a good day for Zoro.<p>

"Are you serious?"

Perona looked at her brother as if he were crazy.

"Of course I'm serious. I need to take care of it. What makes you think I'm not serious?"

"I'm not talking about the bruise!" Zoro stared at her in bewilderment. "Where did you even get those bandages? They're not supposed to be so... colorful."

"I know, aren't they cute?" How could she even think that he suggested that those pink bandages were cute, was beyond Zoro's imagination.

"No, they're not! They're pink! I'm not wearing them!"

"You sure are! You're really ungrateful, you know that?" Perona suddenly began to look like she was the one suffering here. "You don't know how hard I try to make everything cute. And you always seem so unprepared to cooperate. Why is that? Where did I go wrong?"

"You're not going to make it look as if I'm the bad guy here again, are you?" Zoro asked completely untouched by his sister's speech. "I'm a guy, I don't want to look cute."

"Well, you're my brother, you have to be cute." Perona stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And you have to be so bossy about it?!" Zoro pointed his finger at the bear with surgical mask that came with them to the kitchen. "You don't even allow Kumashi to speak, because his voice is uncute."

"Because it is! You think it's easy to remind him to shut up every time he tries to speak?"

"Then let him speak!"

"Are you serious?" Perona looked as if she were defeated. "You just don't get it. Why do boys have to be so dull? Just let me take care of your wound and let's get this over with."

"Then find some normal bandages. I'm already told you I'm not wearing those."

"You really can't stop, can you?" The girl again looked at him irritated. "If you won't just sit tight, I'm going to tell daddy."

"Well, then go ahead and do it. This time he will be on my side." If Zoro was sure about one thing then it was that Mihawk certainly wouldn't force his son to wear pink bandages.

"You are all just..." Perona stopped talking when she felt someone poking from behind. "What is it!?"

It was just a litte boy wearing straw hat.

"Where is the fridge?"

"It's right the..." Perona stoppen in the mid mid sentence to slowly process the situation that have just ocurred and looked closely at the boy. "What the hell are you doing here?! And who are you?!"

"I'm Luffy." The said boy grinned widely and started looking around the kitchen. "I really don't see any fridge there. Stupid Shanks must have lied to me again."

"Shanks? You came here with Shanks?" Perona stared at the young boy. "He's here again?"

"Yeah, I came here with him" Luffy directed his next question to Zoro who still was staring at the other boy in astonishment. "Hey, if you don't have any fridge, where do you keep meat?"

Zoro finally shook off his skeptical look. "It's right there." With his words he pointed his finger in the right direction.

"Don't just tell him that!" Perona screamed. "We still don't know who he..."

"Whoah, that's really a fridge and there's food!" Luffy screamed happily when he reached his destination "It looked more like a wardrobe, which would be weird, because it's a kitchen. Hey, there's no meat, oh well, then I'll just eat something else."

"Is it normal for you to barge into people's house and eat everything from their fridge?" Perona asked as Luffy was absorbing food like a vacuum. The longer he kept doing it, she felt that she was going to throw up.

"Is it normal to you to not have any meat in your fridge?" Luffy asked innocently.

"How is it related to what I just..." Perona was caught off guard with what he just said. "Just answer my question!"

There was a small pause and the for a few seconds the only sound was the sound of Luffy eating the whole contents of the fridge. Luffy then stopped for a second and stared at the girl. "What was this question?"

If she ever thought that having Zoro for a brother was tough, then it was before she met this boy.

"Is it normal that you invade someone's house and eat everything from their fridge?!"

"No, I don't have any friends, I don't go into anybody's house, except for Shanks's, but I live there now, so that doesn't count, shishishi. And Shanks said that it's okay if I do it here, so I just had to know where do you keep food." Of course it was Shanks's doing, what was she thinking? Suddenly boy's gaze turned to Kumashi. "Hey, that's a cool looking bear. Oi, do you poop?"

That's not a question that a person just asks so casually. But she had to act quick, before she would know the answer to that.

"Don't answer that question!" Perona screamed dramatically. "And don't say anything." She turned to Luffy again. "Of course he doesn't poop, that's not cute at all." She would keep telling herself that and she certainly wouldn't search for the answer to that question.

Luffy sighed. "Then that's a shame." One minute he was sad and then, in the next he quickly changed his mood. "But he can talk? That's so cool. Would you say something?"

Kumashi looked as if he would start to talk, but got quickly interrupted by Perona.

"He's not going to talk! He doesn't have a cute voice, I won't allow him!"

"Eh?!" Luffy looked disappointed. "You're not fun at all and you scream all the time. I don't like you, shishishishi."

Before Perona had a chance to physically assault Luffy, Zoro stopped her in the midway.

"Perona, stop! Don't get upset over that, he's just stupid!" Green-haired boy screamed while still trying to hold his sister and stopping her from the assault at the younger boy.

Luffy just stared unmoved by what just happened and smiled widely at the other boy.

"Your hair look funny. Why is it green? Are you even human?"

At this point any question that came out of this boy's mouth wouldn't surprise him, so he just answered it.

"Of course I'm a human. Do I look like something else to you?"

"Shishishi, no, but I don't know anybody who has green hair. It's just funny. What's your name?"

"It's Zoro."

Luffy grinned even more widely.

"Nice to meet you, Zoro. You're cool."

Zoro was caught off guard by this statement. He hadn't done anything cool in his presence, why would he say that?

"Okay, now that you two know each other, I'm finally gonna get you fixed, Zoro."

Luffy for the first time looked really scared.

"Eh? You broke?" He looked deadly serious when he turned to look at Zoro and asked the question.

Zoro palmed himself in the face while Perona looked like she was considering attacking the boy again.

"Of course not! Does he look like he broke to you? And you can't brake human!"

"Ohh... Then that's good, but you said yourself that you need to fix him. Why if he didn't brake?"

"He just got an injury while he was training." Perona answered annoyingly. She wasn't going to explain every little thing to that boy, he clearly wouldn't understand it, anyway. "Just go away and take Shanks with you. He's probably still here and only bothers daddy, as usual."

Luffy just ignored her and looked at Zoro instead. "You got an injury?" he asked disappointed. "So you're weak?"

Now Zoro almost regretted that he held Perona when she was trying to attack this boy. Almost, because that gave him the chance to make this job personally.

"Of course I'm not weak! I'm strong!" He exclaimed. If he believed in something then it certainly was his strength.

But what Luffy did next surprised not only. He stood, gave him a cocky smile and came close to him.

"That's good. Then come with me." And the before he noticed the younger boy grabbed him by his arm and run with him towards the door. Unfortunately for Zoro the arm was the one that got hurt during his training, but he refused to make any sound, so that the other boy wouldn't think that he really was weak, which he was not, as he already said earlier.

"Hey, where are you taking me?" Zoro asked the same question that his sister have just asked among the other questions that came out of her mouth.

"You'll see, shishishi."

But before they got the chance to run out of the house through the front door, Luffy bumped into someone and, as a result, Zoro fell over with him.

"Oi!" Luffy screamed and stared hardly at the hawk-eyed man. "Don't just stand in people's way! It's rude!"

Mihawk too stared at the little kid who he didn't remember letting into the house.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Luffy. Now move out of the way!"

Something wasn't right with this kid. When he gave that look to anyone that was at least three times the size of this kid, they were running away and yet this little boy was screaming at him and giving him this challenging look. But that was not the thing that haven't suited him here.

"How did you get into my house?"

Luffy gave him the strange look as if he asked about something obvious. "You opened the door yourself."

He certainly didn't remember opening the door and letting some kid in. The only time, he opened them... Of course.

"You came here with Shanks?"

The boy grinned. "Yeah, you were just talking to him, so I just sneaked in."

That was so in Shanks's style. Going to his home with a kid and not telling him about it and then going out and forgetting to get the kid. Somehow it didn't surprise him.

"Well, Shanks left five minutes ago, he's not here anymore."

Luffy didn't look surprised too, as it turned out. "That's okay, I wasn't going to wait for him, anyway."

Shanks really did manage to find someone who probably would turn out to be just like him when he grew up.

"Now, move out of the way. I'm going out. And I'm taking Zoro with me."

Mihawk looked questioningly at his son who just sighed and signalled him not to ask any questions.

Mihawk gave an amused grin as watched the kid. His son needed some fresh air, he spend too much time training in the house. "Fine. But come back before it gets dark."

"Shishishi, alright!" He said, but he looked like he didn't listen to what Mihawk said. He grabbed Zoro by his arm again. "Let's go, Zoro!"

And as he said that, they were gone the next moment.

"And I didn't even patch him up." Perona said, holding bandages in her hands.

Mihawk just looked at her and then stared at the pink bandages that she was holding.

"Just find something normal to patch him up when he gets back."

**Okay, so Luffy and Zoro officially met. I hope you liked it. And I hope, they aren't to OOC, but remember that they are just kids and they act differently than they do as adults, but I'll get to that point in their lives in my story, don't worry. Also I'm wondering when I should add other Straw Hats, but for now I think I'll focus mainly on Luffy and Zoro. And even when I'll add them, I think that it will be only up to the fifth member, that is, to Sanji, but I'll think about it. Basically I have the story plotted out, but I can just add more characters. Until then, see you next chapter :)**


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